CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

After an amazing three days in New York City (plus two days which included travel), it’s time to break down how much I spent!

When we first started planning New York, we explored a lot of different options for how to get there (where I live, we could have driven down and taken a train into the city) and where to stay (from hostels to Airbnb to hotels). My rough budget for a week in New York – which to me means five days bookended by two days that include travel, for a total of 7 days of travel – was $2,000.

First, to break down what NYC actually cost: the total amount I spent, all in, including flights, accommodations, any and all tours and attractions tickets, all food from the time we flew out to the time we came home, souvenirs, and so forth, came to $1,577.26 CAD.

I’ve broken down my spending into the following categories (all in Canadian dollars):

• International Travel and Accommodation – $827.43
• Domestic Transport – $46.33
• Tours, Attractions, and Activities – $230.03
• Entertainment – $44.00
• Food – $386.27
• Souvenirs – $43.20

In each of those categories, that included:

• International Travel and Accommodation ($827.43): Return flights from Ottawa to Toronto, then Toronto to Newark through Porter Airlines (a budget airline in Canada). This also includes transport from the airport to Penn Station in New York and from Penn Station back to the airport four nights later. Four nights’ accommodation at the Chelsea International Hostel in a two-bed private room.
• Domestic Transport ($46.33): I bought the seven-day unlimited Metro Card that is offered by NYC Public Transit; this includes rides on the subway and NYC buses. I don’t know if it would include the Staten Island Ferry or any other water transport however. With the amount of times we took public transportation (even with all the walking we did) we managed to use more than the card’s $33 (US) value in the amount of time that we were in the city and I would highly recommend getting one. Otherwise, NYC transit is $2.75 (US) a ride.
• Tours, Attractions, and Activities ($230.03): This included our tickets up the Empire State Building, admission to The Met (we bought our tickets at the kiosk so we were able to get student pricing), a Central Park bike rental, the ferry and admission to the Statue of Liberty, and admission to the MoMA.
• Entertainment ($44.00): This is a rough amount since my friend purchased our tickets for The Phantom of the Opera and I e-transferred her the amount with my portion of our hostel room deposit, but tickets were roughly $40 CAD excluding taxes and the remainder is accounted for in the International Travel and Accommodation section.
• Food ($386.27): This was Starbucks every morning from the time we left to the time we got home, food at the airport flying to NYC, dinner our first night (Shake Shack), lunch the next day at the Met Café, dinner that night at Lasagne Ristorante, breakfast the next morning at Brooklyn Bagels in Chelsea, Duane Reade for snacks (twice), Ellen’s Stardust Diner for an early dinner that night, chocolate from the M&M store, lunch at Joe’s Pizza in Greenwich Village, Creamline in Chelsea Market for dinner before The Phantom of the Opera, and Ellen’s again for brunch before we left for the airport.
• Souvenirs ($43.20): I didn’t go very crazy with souvenirs, so this includes an Empire State Building keychain and A Show for Two by Tashie Bhuiyan from The Strand Bookstore (she actually lives in New York and the book is set in New York, flet so appropriate!).

P.S.: I’m going to be writing another blog post specifically talking about everything we did and what I thought of it, so be sure to stay tuned for that!

A cute little infographic to help you visualize how much each category cost:

Overall, New York was definitely expensive, but I am really happy that we managed to come in under budget! I also broke down my spending by taking out the International Travel and Accommodation category and we actually only spent $749.83 while in the city itself – not bad! Travel and accommodation takes a lot out of your budget, so finding ways to minimize those costs is always a good idea. Though we flew in, we could have taken the Amtrak and it would have only been about $100 round-trip (plus gas to get to the station, of course). Unfortunately, working with time constraints as we were, we determined that flying was the better option to be able to spend as much time in the city as possible. However, if you have the means, I highly recommend looking into taking a train into the city.

Food is obviously another area where we could have cut costs, and with some more research into cheaper restaurants we probably could have spent quite a bit less in that category.

Ultimately, although New York isn’t cheap, it can be done! Set your budget, save money where you can, and ultimately remember that you’re there to have a good time! Make choices that ensure you have the experiences that you want.